Pubdate: Wed, 15 Feb 2012
Source: Arizona Republic (Phoenix, AZ)
Copyright: 2012 The Arizona Republic
Contact: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/sendaletter.html
Website: http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/24

ADDICTION RUINS ANOTHER LIFE

Whitney Houston's voice could leave you in tears.

So can the universal lessons of her death.

She used her sparkle and astonishing vocal range to become a roaring 
success. Her talent was big enough to sustain a fantastic and 
enviable lifestyle.

Who wouldn't feel invincible in that situation? Stars are immortal. 
Unstoppable.

But addition can pierce even gold-plated armor. It can take away 
anybody's dignity.

The exact cause of Houston's death last weekend at age 48 is not yet 
known. But it is no secret that she plunged into substance abuse 
years ago. It brought her down from the dizzying heights of 
pop-culture fame and fortune. It took what could have been a 
storybook life and turned it into a colossal struggle.

You could say she threw it all away. But that's too dismissive of a 
woman who could sing her words deep into your heart.

Too unkind.

More to the point, it is too disrespectful of the enemy that 
undermined the sentiment Whitney Houston sang about with such ringing 
clarity: "Learning to love yourself, it is the greatest love of all."

Addiction is a jealous master. It does not leave room for any other 
lovers. Not even yourself.

It's easy to say that Houston fell victim to the same kind of 
self-destructive behaviors that have brought down so many 
larger-than-life entertainers.

But that sense of invincibility is not unique to the fabulous. It is 
an all-too-common attitude among regular, real-life-size adolescents, 
whose sense of their own immortality has been the cause of parental 
gray hair since Moses was a boy.

There are parallels between pop stars and the youth who want to be 
like them. It's not hero worship alone. It is the shared sense that 
they are so special, so unique that nothing can stop them. Nobody 
knows enough to tell them anything. No danger can harm them.

Prescription drugs. Heroin. Cocaine. Meth. They pose as 
entertainment. A source of pleasure. Easily tamed pastimes.

Addiction is easily acquired and utterly untamable.

So teach the children well. It is not merely weakness or character 
flaws that open the door to addiction. The real danger is the 
illusion that being successful enough or young enough or special 
enough can make a person immune to something that is hard enough to 
crush diamonds.

Houston sang: "No matter what they take from me, they can't take away 
my dignity."

Addiction takes it all.

Sure, people can kick habits. They overcome addiction. But talk to 
those who have done it, and they will tell you about lost years, 
broken hearts and a journey so brutal that many perish.

Houston was so remarkably talented that strangers mourn her passing. 
But the lessons of her short life are applicable to any high-school 
sophomore who believes he or she can use drugs without being used up by them.
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